Business Essentials Package

What is Business Essentials?

Our most popular package is FSB Business Essentials which includes a whole range of benefits and products designed to make your business fly

What's included?

A suite of legal benefits including a dedicated helpline, bundled insurance products and a range of online information to keep your business safe. Plus a whole range of negotiated benefits to help save you money and win business.

Chris Green's Story

'Within a few weeks of joining we'd taken advantage of FSB’s Online Legal Documents. We started a graduate programme and access to these documents gave us an understanding of the legal side, and has helped us to create a number of processes and procedures.'

Marc Wileman's Story

'When we first took on a member of staff, we used the online legal document template library. FSB does more important stuff than you think it does, there are lots of member benefits, probably more than we actually use.'

How much does FSB membership cost?

We offer three packages to suit your business needs. Joining FSB Connect is free, our Business Essentials package starts at £172.50 in the first year and our specialist Business Creation package has a fixed price of £129.

Cultivate a Culture of Results

The right culture is one of the critical success factors in a healthy business. At FSB, we know how important it is for our members to foster a supportive, healthy and proactive operating culture, where staff enjoy their work and are motivated to go that extra mile for their customers.

Getting this kind of culture going leads to a recognisable and positive impact on bottom line results. So how can you begin thinking about your own business culture and work out a strategy for improving it further?

Identify what success means to you

Defining this point is vital. Without understanding what success looks like for your particular business, you cannot devise strategies designed to achieve it, or indeed measure activity as it occurs. You will of course have financial success criteria, but many modern SMEs have a far broader range of measures.

These routinely include more holistic aims such as playing a positive role in the local community, providing sustainable local employment or being an exemplar of workforce diversity. Think broadly and engage with your leadership team to understand what drives them. There will undoubtedly be common values which you can develop into a mission.

Review progress to date

Carry out a business audit using a consultant who specialises in a people framework such as IIP if necessary. This will allow you to review what is currently working well for your business in terms of its culture and behaviours and what is serving it less well. For example, many SMEs find that communication with their own staff could be improved to further build a sense of team and morale. And this becomes a focus area for an action plan.

Make it personal

If you are going to look at your business values and culture, engage willing staff from across the organisation and value their input. In the majority of businesses, staff on the front line have hugely important perspectives and insights that senior managers can so easily miss. Equally, you might want to interview your customers to get their perspective and to gather data about where you can improve. This can be an unnerving process, but it is a hugely valuable one.

Forget perfectionism - trial new things

Perfectionism is impossible to achieve and it often stifles creativity and innovation. Rather than forcing everyone to try to live up to an impossible ideal of what is 'right and good', foster a culture whereby mistakes can be made in the name of trialling new approaches and taking measured risks.

Get online

Start talking about your business in an open and engaging way, using blogs and social media. Encourage your staff to do the same, so that you start a positive conversation with prospects and customers alike. Provide training and guidelines to staff so that they have a useful framework within which to operate. Social media can also help you to convert your customers into brand advocates for you.

Go local

Local community business is a powerful driver of sales and morale alike, so finding your position in the community and supporting local causes can win you new custom and a great reputation. It's also something that staff greatly value.